Persona 5, is finally in my hands after such a long wait after its announcement. Winter 2015 seems like forever ago now. But it's come into my life at a busy time, when finals are just around the corner but I couldn't let it slip past me.
Persona became one of my favorite RPGs when I played Persona 4 Golden for the Vita years ago and then I jumped into Persona 3 and fell in love with both games. They had such distinct themes and styles that they feel like completely different games. Persona 5 follows in suit with a heist theme and I absolutely love it.
You step into the role of a transfer student on probation going to Shujin Academy and discovering how to stop the eventual ruin of the world all the while recruiting friends to aid you. Persona 5 motif is heist schemes and thievery and everyone's Persona keeps in line with that by referencing famous rogues and thieves in fiction and history and it looks really cool design wise. Arsene has to be my favorite Persona to date.
The game starts off really strong too! It jumps right into the action to teach you some basic mechanics but one of my gripes is that it slows down to a halt at times and also within this is a really interesting way of storytelling that has me excited to continue playing when I have the time again. The battles are my favorite to go through. Amazing music and familiar mechanics return such as the All Out Attack and 1 More and the menu presentation is the most animated I've seen a menu do in a game. Instead of a list of commands, your actions are mapped to buttons on the controller and they stick out from characters like tree branches. I'm always eager to jump into battles just to see it.
Persona 5 is definitively a great game in every aspect. The delays and wait was well worth the effort Atlus put into making sure their game was polished 20 times over. If you're interested in playing a Persona game, this would be a great jumping in point. One of my friends has finally made the dive and he's enjoying it too. I highly encourage playing this game.